Mark 12:37 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Mark 12:37

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To strengthen the point, the Lord asks them ‘whence is he then his son?’, and we could legitimately add a word to get the sense – ‘‘whence is he then [only] his son?’ David understood the Lord’s promise to him: ‘I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. ¹³ He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever’ (2 Samuel 7:12-13). He knew this referred ultimately to the Messiah who would be descended from him, but David was also the one who gave Psalm 110. How can he speak of his descendant as the Lord who would sit at the Father’s right hand, and have dominion over all God’s enemies? The Christ will be his descendent but he won’t simply be his human son, because actually he was conceived of the Holy Ghost, conceived in the virgin’s womb by the Holy Ghost. So he is Son of God and son of a man: the incarnate Son of God having a divine nature and a human nature in one person. They are confused by this. ‘We haven’t considered that: that it is not only a man that we are to expect, but the Son of God.’ They are in a quandary, because the leaders are already charging Christ with blasphemy. This one who many think is Messiah, who works mighty miracles, who teaches as no other man teaches, who has such character and authority. This amazing, extraordinary teacher, prophet, and healer calls himself the Son of man, but in many different ways, he shows himself to be the Son of God. What he says from our own prophets is that Messiah will be divine, the Son of God as well as a Son of man. This hit them. Most of them, hardened their hearts; they rejected it. They wouldn't receive it. Their failure to recognise Christ as God and man, was their undoing, and their eternal loss. ‘And the common people heard him gladly.’ Some of them understood it. The scribes were finally put down and the Lord is Messiah and God. Matthew adds, ‘And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions’ (Matthew 22:46). His enemies were silenced. They could not resist his wisdom. They could not risk another encounter with him, in which he would expose their ignorance and put them to shame before the people.

Application

This is the first step in salvation. By the Holy Spirit, our eyes are opened, and we see that Christ is God, the Son of God who came to redeem, and we hold him in awe, and reverence. And we have a new view, and this realisation dawns on our minds, grows in our hearts. It brings us to our knees. It will bring us under conviction of sin. It will bring us into a realisation of our need of him, and we will run to him and yield to him.

In the walk of righteousness for God's people, it remains essential to have high in our minds and on our hearts, an appreciation of Christ and who he is, his lovingkindness and his power, his greatness, and his glory. If we are children of God and we are converted to him, one day we shall see them. We shall see him if we die before his return. We shall see him, of course, if we are alive at his return, and we will be overwhelmed. ‘I never realised’, we will say, ‘his Majesty and his glory.’ When we see the glorified Lord, when we see the God man, we shall just be amazed and overwhelmed. And if it were possible – and happily it may not be possible – we will be deeply ashamed that, as Christians, we treated him so lightly, and prayed to him so flippantly at times. These things are just beyond our comprehension at the moment. But to do our best, to keep him in view. David calleth him, Lord, and so must we.

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Mark 12:37 Commentary and Bible Study